This invention relates to sluice gate apparatus and more particularly to sluice gate systems and improved apparatus that requires less energy for its operation.
A diversity of applications exist in the field of liquid flow control as between conduits, pipes or channels. Water flow control is perhaps the most typical of such applications requiring watertight closures that are widely used in water purification systems, sewage and drainage systems. In many cases high heads or pressures are encountered and in others corrosive environments are common which imposes a dual requirement on such apparatus. Not only must the sluice gate be a precision piece of equipment that can be used to form watertight closures but the gate must also be of heavy duty construction which can withstand the pressures and corrosive effects to which such apparatus is subjected.
In achieving the requirements of durability and strength, the structure of a sluice gate is necessarily heavy which often requires electric motor operated drawing means for opening and closing a gate. Furthermore, in order to comply with the requirements for a watertight seal, it is known to employ wedge means in order to jam a sluice gate disc against its frame. The combination of apparatus weight, wedge jamming pressure, and disc seating pressure caused by water pressure which tends to seat or push the disc against a mating seat face on the frame requires enormously high initial pressures in order to crack or unseat the disc so that it can be then raised. Once the disc is cracked, less energy is then required to lift it.